Published 6:30 am, Monday, January 18, 2010

Rick Adelman is starting to have trouble getting a handle on what type of energy with which the Rockets will play.

Rick Adelman is starting to have trouble getting a handle on what type of energy with which the Rockets will play.

Photo: Johnny Hanson, Chronicle

Rockets need to rediscover urgency, intensity

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Perhaps the Rockets just like to do things the hard way. Road games. Back-to-backs. Championship contenders. Bring them on.

When they were going through what was thought to be the toughest part of the schedule, the Rockets were their best and finished with the winningest December in franchise history.

Since they emerged from that gauntlet of games against the likes of the Lakers, Cavaliers and Mavericks, they have struggled, often failing to show the urgency and intensity that had carried them through the first two months.

False sense of security

The downturn did start with a predictably tough three-game road trip to begin this month. But when the Rockets lost to the Miami Heat on Friday, coach Rick Adelman questioned whether the team thought just being at home would be enough.

“I don't believe it,” forward Luis Scola said. “I don't believe that just because we are home we were going to win. If we did, it's a really big problem because we are not going to beat anybody just because we are at home.

“If we play the right way, the way we want to be, the way we're supposed to be playing, we can beat anybody here or anywhere else. But if we play the wrong way, like we did (Friday), we're going to lose games against everybody, home or away.”

Even if they had not made such assumptions, the Rockets face the Bucks today in another test of their ability to generate the same intensity for a struggling team at home as they had for contending teams on the road.

Desperately seeking win

Coming off a week in which the Rockets lost two of three games, winning only after three overtimes against the Timberwolves, they have reason to believe they need a win. They don't play again until Friday in San Antonio, and they have fallen into a tie for eighth in the Western Conference.

“With our team, we should come out with the edge every night,” Rockets guard Kyle Lowry said. “It should be our MO, what we do every night. But the last couple games, we seemed not to be playing with that sense of urgency until the last moments.

“How we played the second half of the Knicks game is how we have to play every night. We have to get back to playing with the sense of urgency each and every night.”

The Rockets had taken considerable pride in their ability to respond to challenges. The trick is to perform with the same mentality when not facing the same sort of adversity, whether comforted by the surroundings or confident about the opponent.

“I think that's probably true,” Adelman said. “We get too comfortable with ourselves. We don't come out with the energy we need. When our backs are to the wall, we seem to play better, with more energy and more intensity.

“After a game like the other night … the way we played against Miami, I would hope we're going to respond to play a lot better.”

If nothing else, the Rockets insist they learned a lesson, with today's game — against a struggling foe playing in the afternoon — offering the sort of trap that this time they said will not ensnare them.

Target the Bucks

“Obviously, it's a game we need to win,” center David Andersen said. “We have a good stretch at home now. In a homestand, in front of our home fans, these are games we should come away with victories. We have to concentrate, play our style, get back to hustling, do what we were doing at the start of the year.

“You can't let your guard down at all. You have to keep concentrating, always keep your focus. Even when you play at home, there's no guarantee of victories. We've got to work hard, especially our team, to get wins against anybody.”